Warning: Death fic chapter

Alison couldn't stop staring out the window of Stepan's van as it moved down the street. The streetlights lit up a wonderland of colorfully decorated store fronts, sidewalks with people warmly bundled up in coats and fur hats walking past them, signs in a strange alphabet.

"Dayushka," said Alexei. "This is where I lived when I was a little boy."

"In that building there?" Daisy pointed.

"No. I grew up in a house not too far from here. We will be there very soon."

Stepan parked in front of a small house. A mat was in front of four steps leading up to a porch which was supported by four white pillars. Stepan knocked on the plain wooden door, and a moment later, the door was pulled open by Masha.

She hugged Alexei, then said hello to Alison and Daisy. Then she stepped aside so they could enter the house.

"How is Mama?" asked Alexei.

"She is comfortable right now, but very weak," Masha replied. "She has been asking for you."

Alison looked around at the room in which they stood. The walls were brown, and a brown carpet covered the floor. Against one wall was an old fashioned television, and across from it was a sofa covered with several throw blankets. Between them was a cluttered coffee table.

Masha led Alexei, Alison, and Daisy into a bedroom. A large dresser was against one wall, and beside it was a bed with Olga lying in it.

She was so thin and pale Alison hardly recognized her. She seemed to have aged many years since her most recent visit to the United States. Alison's heart ached for her.

"Mama!" Alexei held his mother, lifting her slightly from the bed. Alison saw his eyes fill with tears.

Mother and son spoke softly in Russian for some time. Witnessing such an intimate scene, Alison felt very much like an intruder, but then Olga let go of her son and reached for her daughter-in-law.

"Alisonka," she whispered as she held her close. "You have made my Alexei so happy. I can never thank you enough."

"Mama needs to rest now," Masha announced. She led her guests back into the living room. "Would you like something to eat?"

"Nyet," said Alexei.

"I'm fine, thank you," said Alison. "Just a snack for Daisy, please."

Masha brought milk and cookies. After Daisy had eaten, Alexei led his wife and daughter into a smaller bedroom.

"This was my bedroom when I was a little boy, Dayushka," Alexei told his daughter.

"Are those pictures of rockets on the wall?" asked Daisy.

"This is Sputnik 1." Alexei pointed to the poster of the satellite.

Daisy's eyes grew wide. "Did you ride it to the moon?"

Alexei laughed. "Oh, no. Nobody rode it. It went around and around the earth for three weeks. I was a few years older than you are now when that happened."

"And what is that other one?" asked Daisy.

"It is a space capsule called Vostok 1," Alexei told her. "A man named Yuri Gagarin went all the way around the earth in it. I was a teenager when that happened."

Daisy looked a little disappointed. "But he didn't go to the moon in it?"

"The first people to go to the moon were two men named Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin," said Alison. "Your Daddy and I were both grown up by that time."

Daisy frowned. "But why don't you have a picture of their space capsule, Daddy?"

Alexei sighed. "Some day you will understand why not, little one."

"I have a book at home with their pictures in it," said Alison. "I'll show it to you when we get back home."

Daisy grinned.

After getting ready for bed in the tiny washroom, Alexei slept in the bed that had been his as a child, while Alison and Daisy slept in the one that had been his older brother's.

Alison found it almost impossible to go to sleep. Besides the affect of jet lag, there was also the worry of how Alexei would be able to handle his mother's passing. One look at Olga had told her the elderly woman was barely hanging onto life.


As it turned out, Olga lived for several more days. She was asleep almost the entire time. Her children and grandchildren were constantly in and out of the house, but Alexei, Alison, and Daisy spent almost all their time in Alexei's childhood home.

On the morning of the third day, Masha called her brothers and sister together, and they all crowded into the bedroom. Olga's face was blue, and her arms and legs were already cooling. As her children watched, her eyes fluttered open, then closed, and she exhaled for the very last time.

Except for Katya's sobbing, there was complete silence for about five minutes, and then Masha excused herself to make the necessary telephone call.